Cackle hatchery's Hatchery Surprise- Anybody got this before?

[chubbychick]

I've followed this thread religiously for the past couple months. Just so everyone has an idea I ordered my surprise box Feb 7 and received it today April 8. After a sleepless night bc my box left Kansas city at 8:37 PM last night it arrived here in central Texas at 3:41 am. I don't post much just bc I'm still trying to learn but I thought I was pretty good at identifying birds. Boy was I wrong! I got 50 birds 1 was DOA so I'm at 49. 48 are looking great 1 is kinda slow. I know I got 2 ducks I think they are Swedish blacks. I specifically requested ducks turkeys and anything that'd give me food but no bantams. They put my request on the invoice. I also called them the morning of shipping and reminded them I want ducks and turkeys. The lady said she'd put another note and I got a copy of my invoice covered in stickers that said ducks and turkeys. I'll post pics shortly for help IDing.

Your ducks are rouens I believe.

 

[jason73125]

Your ducks are rouens I believe.

After looking at pictures of Rouen ducklings I believe your right.

 

[dantesmom59]

Hi Mary, My name is Candie and I'm a chickaholic too!!!

 

[brightpennies]

I don't know what #1 is, but I've got one too.

2 looks like a barred rock but I can't tell for sure.

3 is possibly an RIR?

4th one is a Fayoumi.

7 looks like a black cochin.

8 is a Polish, isn't it? It looks like it has a topknot. If so, silver laced.

I was feeling pretty awful about my order. I lost more than 1/3 of my birds :/ I canceled my later order. The hatchery called yesterday and offered to reship a partial Surprise order as long as I kept my turkey order intact. They even offered to send specific birds if I'd lost birds I really wanted (all the ducks, for example).

I know that my losses weren't the fault of the hatchery, and probably the only reason they got in touch with me is that somebody higher up saw the note on my cancelled order -- but my order was tiny in the grand scheme of their business. I really got the impression that they want their customers to be happy. It was horrible to lose so many peeps over so many days, but Cackle has won me back and I'm happy to recommend them. Besides that, I got a great assortment of peeps

 

[jason73125]

Thanks for the help brightpennies! I'm so sorry for your loss but I agree I doubt it was the hatcheries fault. They wouldn't stay in business long with the internet and selling bad chicks. That's awesome they offered to resend you chicks. I dealt with a local mom and pops hatchery a few months ago I bought 52 rir chicks and within a 2 weeks all but 4 were dead. Im talking walking around with a garbage bag picking up dead chicks after work. I went over there and was basically told the chicks are sold as is how is no warranty no returns no refunds. They are pretty much blackballed around here but advertise heavy in the big cities.

I lost 1 over night which I expected he was just so much more smaller than the rest and he wasn't active. I got another one that's acting slow this morning but I gave him some water and seemed to pep up a bit. It's hard to babysit one chick when everything happens at once around here. I had 3 goats go in labor yesterday and 1 this morning. Plus I got cows to feed and kids have there activity's.

I got such a variety it was crazy. Literally I got multiples of a couple types and singles of a bunch. How do can a person tell the difference in a chick and a turkey at this age? The only turkeys I've dealt with are Rio grande and they came already grown.

 

[brightpennies]

Turkeys are leggier and have pointier beaks. Their heads are kind of... rounder. It helps that they only offer a few varieties so if you suspect that you have a turkey, it's easy to compare yours to the possible poults they might have sent. Do you think you have one? I'm sure folks could tell from a picture

I'm sorry to hear about your losses! I was so stressed out about these chicks dying off that it was hard to enjoy the healthy ones. You're right, though, they send a great assortment. The ones I'm pretty sure of are as follows:

2 fawn and white runner ducklings
2 barred plymouth rocks
2 salmon faverolles
1 fayoumi
2 turkens
2 silver laced wyandottes
2 white cochin
1 appenzellar spitzhauben
1 silver spangled hamburg
3 black cochin
1 cinnamon queen
1 buckeye
2 light brown leghorn
2 white leghorn
1 buff brahma
1 RIR
Plus a few I can't conclusively ID

Some of the ones I lost were the same as those above, and I got a pair of polish who both died. They could just throw whatever in a box, but I think they do a great job of sending a fun mix. I'm not sure I would buy another, largely because of how many birds I have now, but that's what I say while they're all still living inside...

 

[Sristi]

Our Surprise box arrived yesterday morning, all alive.

I can and do hatch chicks myself, but come on! Getting a big box of poultry surprise in the mail is SO MUCH FUN!! We got four ducks and many, many chicks. Our packing slip had a handwritten notation "surprise 53," so we're going with that number. It's hard to count a brooderfull of buzzing chicks! No firm thoughts on ID besides the easy ones like 2 pekins, 2 rouens, 4 naked necks, and 4 Polish. Got quite a few big fluffy feather-legged, but even those could be Cochin or Brahma. Then I remembered that Cackle sells French marans which also have feathered legs, and then I gave up.

 

[WPFarmstead]

Most of mine are nearly feathered out, which is a good thing because my turkeys and cayugas should be here in a week. We plan to pull the cockerels out and put them in another pen before that happens, so we have room to set up a mini brooder in the corner.

But of course my favorite little hen is nowhere to be found in either picture.

 

[tinrooster farm]

I love reading all these posts! I'm new to the chick and chicken scene but I can hardly contain myself!!!

Love the idea of the surprise box wish I had known about it but I'm happy with what we have so far. Ours are just from area farm stores - 21 chicks total.

Our not so little brood started with 6 buff Orpington pullets then about a wk later we added 6 barred rock straight run. Everyone seemingly healthy and happy so we added 9 more 2 wks later These 9 were 3 black jersey giant pullets, 3 RIR pullets and 3 americana straight run.

I think I'm an addicted crazy chicken lady! If I didn't have a full time job I'm sure it would be worse! But my hubby is just as bad- I've been telling him "no more chicks!" (Right now anyway lol)

 

[Jamestown78]

Any thoughts on what this might be? Not from Cackle but this thread always gets good ID responses.